During the Singapore Grand Prix, everything happened. Starting with a Saturday where Red Bull made a series of uncharacteristic errors, leading to a race that had us on the edge of our seats until the last corner, thanks to the individual performances of winner Carlos Sainz, but also, and perhaps primarily, due to Mercedes’ excellent decision to take advantage of the Virtual Safety Car, called about 20 laps from the checkered flag, to switch to Medium tires and attempt an assault on victory.
“Ferrari had a perfect race,” declared the Spanish driver Carlos Sainz at the end of the race to ‘Sky Sport F1’ microphones. We can agree with him regarding that, but we cannot say the same for the race of his teammate Charles Leclerc. We’ll discuss this further in this analysis. First, let’s proceed with a complete recap of the strategies to have an overall picture of the situation.
All the strategies adopted in the Singapore GP
As expected, the race at the Marina Bay circuit turned out to be a one-stopper. The winner of the event, Carlos Sainz, finished the race using the Medium-Hard strategy, changing tires on the 20th lap when the first Safety Car was deployed. On the same strategy were Norris (2nd), Gasly (6th), Piastri (7th), Lawson (9th), and Hulkenberg. The German is the only one who used this tactic and ended up out of the points.
Sergio Perez (from 13th to 8th) and Max Verstappen (from 11th to 5th) managed to enter the top-10 by going for Hard-Medium tires, making their stops on the 39th and 40th laps, respectively. The other driver who attempted this approach was Bottas, but he had to retire prematurely around the 50th lap.
The most competitive solution was chosen by the Mercedes duo and the Williams team, opting to mount an additional set of Medium tires during the VSC period that occurred on the 43rd lap. Except for Sargeant, who couldn’t keep up with the top-10, the others were all fighting for good positions. Alex, despite starting outside the top ten, could have secured some points if it hadn’t been for a contact with Sergio Perez that spoiled his race until the 59th lap. The same goes for George Russell, who hit the wall on the final lap, losing the third place on the podium. This mistake allowed Lewis to join Carlos Sainz and Lando Norris in the top three.
Magnussen made it into the top-10 thanks to the M-H-S strategy, switching to the red tires during the VSC, while Fernando Alonso, on the same strategy, failed to score points due to an issue during the final pit stop. Later, the Spaniard also made a driving error, but by then, his race had nothing more to offer.
Among those starting on Soft tires, Charles Leclerc finished 4th by switching to Hard tires during the first SC, while Zhou, starting from the pit lane, finished 12th by switching to Hard tires on the second lap and Mediums on the 20th lap, taking advantage of the safety car period.
Ferrari’s wastefulness
We no longer even hope for it. When can we witness a perfect race from the men of Maranello? Well, occasionally it happens. Monza, for example, was a flawless race, but that was an extraordinary event. In Singapore, as often happens, if we can say that the Italian team was nearly flawless on Sainz’s side, the same cannot be said for what was done with Charles Leclerc.
Let’s start from the beginning, with the choice to put Medium tires on Carlos and Soft tires on Charles. Diversifying strategies is undoubtedly the best approach, but if you intend to benefit one driver without risking him losing the race, then a different approach should have been taken. It would have been much better, for example, if the idea was to use car number 16 as a bottleneck in the early stages of the race, to reverse the choice. In other words, putting Sainz on Soft tires and Leclerc on Mediums. The driver of car 55 would have had a clear track and could have easily used the potential of his Ferrari to build a lead, while Charles slowed down the group behind him. However, one detail is missing in this equation: Sainz started from pole position, but between the two Ferrari drivers, there was Russell. So, by starting Charles on Mediums, there was no guarantee of having a Red 1-2 after the first corner.
Strange but true, with the chosen strategy (Mediums for Carlos and Softs for Charles), the scenario materialized. The Monegasque driver got off to a good start, overtook George, and it was immediately 1-2 for Ferrari. However, the team focused on Carlos Sainz’s victory and abandoned Leclerc as if a 1-2 finish was never part of the plan. A team of Mercedes’ caliber, just to name one, would probably have instructed the leader to let his teammate pass, given that he was on a different strategy and, moreover, was faster. The team orders would have been restored after the pit stop, once the 1-2 finish was secured.
Instead, Charles Leclerc was ordered to slow down the group, something the Monegasque driver attempted to do at times, but Sainz didn’t have the pace to pull away. Thus, at the 20th lap, when the Safety Car was deployed, and Ferrari called its drivers to the pits for a double pit stop, there were only 3 seconds between them. Leclerc had to wait for his turn, and by encountering traffic, he returned to the track in 6th place, losing positions to Verstappen, Russell, Perez, and Norris.
Fortunately, Red Bull’s Hard tires were too old to maintain the pace of the new sets put on by their rivals. Additionally, the reigning world champion team was unlucky to make the pit stop just a few laps before the VSC period. Otherwise, Max would have had the opportunity to close in on the group.
Returning to Ferrari and Leclerc, let’s analyze the situation at the 42nd lap, just before the Virtual Safety Car came out. The race had stabilized. The front group was on Hard tires and was about to finish the race on this compound. Sainz was leading, followed by Russell, Norris, Hamilton, and Leclerc. The top five were separated by 4 seconds, but Charles’ hopes of reaching the podium were slim because overtaking was challenging when caught in a DRS train. So, when the Virtual Safety Car was called into action, 20 laps from the end, it’s unclear why Charles wasn’t instructed to return to the pits for a set of Soft tires.
As can be deduced from the tires available for the race, Charles Leclerc no longer had Mediums but still had C5 tires. The softer compounds had performed well in the first stint, and coincidentally, he had completed precisely 20 laps on them. Initially, Mercedes seemed to have the same idea as Ferrari, but then, taking advantage of delays in securing the track, decided to make a double pit stop and put Medium tires on both Russell and Hamilton. It was a perfect move, and if it hadn’t been for Sainz’s coolness in slowing down the pace and giving his slipstream to Lando Norris to help defend against the Mercedes attacks, car number 63 could have won. By fitting Softs on Charles Leclerc, Ferrari would not only have been in contention for a double podium but could also have put Carlos Sainz in a more secure position.
It’s too late now, of course. Ferrari fans can finally rejoice in Carlos Sainz’s victory, the only one not signed by Red Bull in 2023. It’s a great satisfaction, although achieving a 1-2 finish would have been sweeter, especially considering the 21 points recovered on Mercedes in the constructors’ championship (the difference is now 24 points).
P.S: In recent news, Perez was penalized by 5 seconds for causing contact with Alex Albon, who would probably have scored points without this incident. However, with an advantage of over 11 seconds over Lawson, he managed to retain 8th place. In this case, we’ll leave the comments to you.
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